The word “audit” can have a daunting and negative connotation for sure. You hear some say “audit” and you automatically scavenge for your receipts for the past seven years, hoping that the IRS doesn’t find a mistake in your (presumably) honest accounting. No one wants to be audited but yet if we were all to perform regularly scheduled audits on ourselves, our programs and our performance, perhaps we would achieve more of our goals, or at least adjust plans along the way when goals must change course due to external circumstances.
As fall approaches and economic leaders suggest that the worst of this recession is perhaps behind us, now is an appropriate time to create and execute a marketing audit on your plans and programs. If you already do this on a regular basis, excellent, as marketing audits should be done regularly, not just in troubled times. But certainly if you haven’t been, now is the time to hunker down and get real about what works in your marketing toolbox and what doesn’t.
So what is a marketing audit anyway? It is a comprehensive, systematic approach to evaluating your objectives and strategies for your marketing program and then recognizing the problem areas, and fixing them to be more in line and more prosperous in meeting your end goals. The comprehensive part of the audit encompasses all aspects of marketing, not just your sales initiatives. You’ll be able to find the real problem spots if you evaluate all areas including how the customer perceives your products, promotions and services; how well you know your market segments and channels; and to what extent to you truly create and execute strategic marketing. In other words, do you come up with a few marketing ideas here and there, or every six months, do you brainstorm and strategize with your teams on ways to promote and marketing your products and service – and then create an executable plan based on that session?
Other ways to evaluate your successes and your problem areas is to create a checklist of all of your marketing initiatives, from your website development and maintenance and social networking participation, to direct mail campaigns, promotions and events, and inside and outside sales. Create columns next to each for poor, good and excellent and have your managers or supervisors check off a ranking for each item. This will show where your company’s strengths and weaknesses lie, and the results may open the door to untapped opportunities to shine in a given market.
Here are a few areas to consider as evaluation tools in your marketing audit:
– The Macroenvironment and the Task Environment. Demographic, environmental, economic, technological, political, and cultural shifts and changes all affect the macroenvironment in which you market. What is changing in these areas? How are they going to affect your strategy? What areas will work even in changing times? What programs and ideas must change in order to be effective? The same holds true for task environment factors like changes that occur with your customers, vendors and suppliers, and competitors. What changes are they facing and experiencing that are going to affect the way you do business? What are you going to do to adjust accordingly?
– Overall marketing strategy. What is your overall strategy and mission? How does your specific marketing mission statement tie back to your overall business statement? Do you have strategies in place that will address the key needs of specific stakeholder groups? Will those strategies work six months from now? Do they address the state of the economy? If the economy changes, will these strategies still be relevant or will they need to be changed?
– Organization of the Audit. How are you going to organize and execute the audit? Companies often keep their marketing and customer service departments separate. If this is true, does your marketing manager know how his materials and promotions affect the customer and end-user? Can she successfully evaluate her programs as they relate to what the customer ultimately needs? Other areas of communication that require synergy include marketing and sales, and marketing and distribution or research and development. How do the communications efforts rank among these areas?
– Productivity. You must evaluate all areas of your business for profitability and then, in turn, assess which marketing programs are cost effective and which ones are excessive. Bringing these two areas will allow you to reduce costs and be more productive and profitable as well.
Marketing audits are a necessary gut check. If you were traveling down the highway and felt lost, you wouldn’t just keep driving; you would consult a map or your GPS system. You would evaluate your location and make your next decision based on your findings, and move on from there. The same holds true for your audits. By determining your problem areas, you can fine tune your marketing strategies for optimum results.
Leave a Reply